Insecurity and Honesty

Rose kneeled in front of her new master and waited patiently for the pain that followed failure. Of course her former mission was to kill her new master but since it came to light who he really was to her, well, attempting to take his life now felt like the greatest failure in her life. She needed to be punished for such a horrid mistake.

"Why would I punish you? You didn't do anything." Derren asked sincerely.

"What?! Didn't do anything! I tried to kill you, my master, the one I'm meant to serve! It wouldn't be a surprise if you executed me on the spot for such treason! I have never failed so badly in my entire life, and I am always punished severely for failure. Please, punish me." Rose begged.

It was clear that Rose was truly upset about all this, and it took Derren off guard. He hadn't expected the assassin he recently used his powers on to be such a tortured soul, but as he looked down at Rose she had tears forming in the corners of her eyes. She was trembling like a leaf in a hurricane. She couldn't even look him in the eyes, she was too afraid and/or ashamed to do so. Looking at her like this made him realize that she wasn't a natural born killer, she was just a girl that was abused until she couldn't refuse the order to kill. It made him sick to think about. She didn't deserve it, and she was surly not the only one this had happened to. Right now though she was expecting punishment from her master, and if he had to guess then Derren assumed that she was conditioned from a young age to follow the programing set by whomever was her master. As he was now her master it wouldn't sit well with her if he didn't do something to punish her. So, until he could deprogram her he would have to play along a bit.

"Fine turn your head up to me and I'll give you your punishment." Derren said to Rose.

Rose took a deep breath and turned her head upwards, but as soon as her eyes met his she quickly shut her eyes. For some reason the thought of seeing his angry face striking her scared her more than any other punishment she had ever received. Her whole body clenched as she felt his body get closer to hers expecting to receive harsh punishment.

*Plink*

"Huh?" Rose said as she opened her eyes. She then placed her fingers over the low throbbing spot on her forehead.

"Master, I don't understand?" Rose looked at her master in confusion.

"What? I punished you for attempting to kill me." Derren responded back.

"By...flicking my forehead? Isn't the punishment too lenient?" Rose inquired.

"Not at all. You did try to kill me, but you didn't, and you seem to be genuinely sorry about it. Therefore I think it's fine to let it go at that. Plus, I don't want to damage you severely you are much more useful to me if you are healthy." Derren explained.

"Okay..." Rose said with a blush as red as her namesake. She wasn't completely sure how to process something like that so she thought it best to just let it go.

"Let's get this mess cleaned up then, huh?" Derren said to the girls as he gestured to the fake they had made.

The fake consisted of a mannequin covered with a layer of synthetic flesh. Underneath the fake flesh were real blood packs so that it would splatter realistically. It was the hopes of them all that by having knowledge of the **** attempt they could lull the assassin into a false sense of security and take a shot on the phony Derren. They were able to acquire these things due to Mia's family's money and dubious connections. That said it did leave quite the mess.

"Do we have to have to?" Florence said.

"That's unlike you to complain." Mia said back.

"Well...Blood makes me queasy." Florence admitted.

"Well I for one can't wait to play around with some blood." Miko said as she started walking to the living room.

"We aren't playing, we're cleaning." Mia grabbed Miko's shoulder as she spoke.

"I know, I know, you're such a buzzkill, geez." Miko grabbed turned to the kitchen to get some cleaning supplies.

"Flo if it bothers you, you don't have to help out with this." Derren said.

"Thanks, uh, looking at this even is making me want to throw up. Do you mind if I lay down upstairs." Florence said.

"Yeah of course, you know the way to my room." Derren replied.

"You know it." Florence said as she gave Derren a peck on the cheek.

"Thanks for not killing our boyfriend." Florence said as she passed by Rose on her way to the stairs.

"Um...You're welcome?" Rose said in a questioning tone. Being sociable to infiltrate during a mission was easy for her, but interacting with others genuinely was difficult for her.

(Rose POV)

Rose was no stranger to manual labor so it wasn't much of an inconvenience when she volunteered to help clean up. She was also familiar with removing blood stains due to her life so far as an assassin. Sometime she needed to eliminated any trace of a crime from the scene so she would have to clean up after herself occasionally. As such she also knew what cleaning supplies to use, and the amount of said supplies to use too.

"Thank god you're here to help us out Rose!" Mia said as she scrubbed a blood stain vigorously.

"It's nothing." Rose said curtly.

"Yeah, considering we wouldn't be doing this if you hadn't tried to kill Derren!" Miko said with vitriol.

Rose clenched her teeth, and hung her head even lower as she picked up the pace of her scrubbing. This was becoming a thing with Miko. She kept calling Rose out on the thing she was quickly becoming the most ashamed about. Trying to kill Derren was a mistake she'd have to endure forever, but having it rubbed in like that was just making things worse for her own self pity. At least Mia seemed to want to try to extend the olive branch. The real issue was Derren though because she didn't know how to interact with him. It was hard to even make eye contact. Rose was used to a master and servant relationship first with mother and then with father, so Derren being gentle, nice, and caring was unnerving to say the least. He wasn't like anyone she'd met up until this point, and though she was ashamed to admit it she was just waiting for the other shoe to fall. She expected him to show his true colors. It wasn't conceivable that a man of this much power could be capable of compassion. It was because of this paranoia that she made an uncharacteristically clumsy error.

"Damnit!" Miko blurted out.

Rose stared in shock at the spilt cleaning solvent that she had so carelessly knocked over. She was stunned by how carless she was to make such an error, and she started shaking just at the thought of disappointing her new master.

"Forgive me! I'll wipe this up in no time." Rose said as she frantically grabbed towels from nearby and began absorbing the wasted solvent into them. From behind her she could sense that Mia had stood up and soon she had walked over to Derren. Now Rose was sweating a cold sweat as out of the corner of her eye she was saw Mia whisper in his ear. Quickly he got up and looked at Rose.

"Rose come with me please." Derren called out.

Rose felt as though her arms and legs had gotten frozen to the floor as she was too afraid to move. No less than an hour into her new role and she had already made a mistake, and this was after she started the night by attempting to kill him. This made her feel genuine fear for the first time in a very long time. She was terrified that she couldn't live up to his expectations. That said orders were orders so she soldiered up and stood up straight so she could follow along. She followed until they were on the other side of the house in a room that seemed to be an office.

"Flo's in my room so I thought we could use dad's home office for this right now." Derren said.

"As you wish." Was all Rose responded with.

"Rose, can you take off your shirt and show me your back?" Derren asked.

Rose flinched at that, but did as she was asked. In a quick, fluid motion she removed her shirt, and was wearing only a bra on her torso. She took it a step farther however, as she assumed a kneeling position unprompted. She could hear his foot steps approach and she hunched her back slightly to brace for impact. She hadn't seen it, but surly she'd feel the feeling of a whip take chunks out of her flesh, and hear the crack of the whip that did it. She'd become desensitized to it but the prospect of him doing it made her heart jump into her throat, and she couldn't figure out why. Soon he was right next to her which she found strange. It was even stranger when he crouched down to be level with her. He brushed her long black hair over her shoulder. She felt tense at the uncertainty of the situation she was so unnerved she felt sick to her stomach. If he was going to punish her he should just do it already, she thought.

"Wha-?" Rose said in shock as she felt his hand gently touch her back. Soon she noticed he was tracing the many, many scars on her back with his fingers.

"Who did this to you?" Derren asked.

"My mother, though she wasn't my real mother. Just the woman assigned to make me..." Rose struggled to finish her thought as she was finally realizing how much of a monster she was designed to be.

"A killer?" Derren finished her thought.

"...yeah." Rose whispered.

"Do they still hurt?" Derren asked.

"I don't know, I stopped feeling a long time ago." Rose said.

"Rose, I don't know how I can patch the heart your masters damaged, but for now all I can do is this." Derren said as he wrapped his arms around Rose and hugged her from behind.

Usually Rose would never allow someone to grab her from behind, but this was the man that would serve as her master. That said once she could process it she was very shocked to find herself in this embrace.

"Huh?!" She said taken aback.

"You can tell me if you want me to stop, but I figured the least I could do for you right now is to hug you and let you know that everything is okay now." Derren said as he comforted Rose.

As she felt his body heat against her, as his arms clung around her firmly yet gently, as he told her it would all be okay now, it all clicked in her head. These mysterious thoughts and feelings she was having that she couldn't place, and made her feel so awkward, that was emotions. Genuine emotions that weren't a range between apathy and rage. She felt, for the first time since she could remember, she felt. However, just because she understood that she was feeling them didn't mean she could process or control them. All those repressed emotions bubbled up to the surface, and soon they were boiling over like an overfull pot.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Rose screamed as tears started to stream down her face as if her eyes had become broken faucets. Derren gripped her tighter as Rose cried. They stayed like this for a half an hour before Rose felt calm enough to talk again.

"I don't know why you'd help a monster like me, but thank you." Rose stated.

"You're not a monster Rose. I believe that." Derren said as he continued to hold onto Rose.

"I'm not normal either." She said.

"Neither am I." Derren responded.

"It's not fair. Why couldn't I have lived a normal life. It just isn't fair." Rose lamented.

"It isn't, but you don't have to suffer alone." Derren said.

"Master?" Rose asked if she could address Derren.

"Just call me Derren." Derren stated.

"Well...Derren?" Rose continued.

"Yes?" Derren said.

"I want to tell you about what I've been though. Would that be too inconvenient?" Rose asked.

"I want to know more about you anyway, so it's fine." Derren said.

Derren and Rose fell out of their embrace and she turned to face him. This time her eyes met his without any hesitation. That night Derren heard the horror story of a girl who suffered the life of an assassin, and though the subject was heavy the bonds between them deepened

Author's note: Okay, so I didn't know how to write the crying sound effect this chapter. Waaa is too immature for the mood, but the Aaaaaa I used is just a scream. I also think that something like *cries* is kinda lazy so I've been avoiding doing that lately. Anyway, if anyone has a good sound effect for crying that fits the mood of this scene I will change the chapter with the new sound effect.